With the all the media hype that comes with Super Bowl week, it has been easy to forget that another huge sporting event looms on the horizon: the Winter Olympics. For most fans, the Winter Games evokes only moderate, passing interest. Viewers will casually tune into NBC to mindlessly watch curling and marvel that Ghana has a skiing team, but have neither much knowledge of the sports they are watching nor much desire to learn about them. In part, that is why NBC projects to lose more than $200 million broadcasting the Olympics this year.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. Sports fans in the United States have a very good reason to get excited about the 2010 Vancouver games because the most exciting event is one that is based right here at home. That sport is hockey, and for all that Americans claim they want to ignore its existence, this could be the event that helps them realize they are cheating themselves out a unique experience.

Every problem that Americans complain about in the NHL is addressed in the Olympics. There are no roster spots wasted on untalented enforcers, no meaningless physical play just for the sake of “sending a message.”

The rinks have more open space and scoring is more frequent than in is in the NHL. All the games are actually covered on network television rather than a cable station, Versus, that you may or may not get. The hockey purist may not love these changes or consider them to be “problems,” excluding the TV coverage, but the differences are a perfect way to introduce more fans to the game and increase its exposure. If you don’t watch hockey and cite any of these complaints as reasons why you do not care about it, then this is your opportunity to give the sport another chance.

Another reason to watch hockey on the international level is that the state of the sport’s talent is better than it has ever been in recent memory. Superstars such as Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin among others are not only attracting more fans to games both because of their talent and because of the rivalries they have built up among each other. The overall talent of the Russian and Canada teams, who are the two favorites to battle for the gold medal, creates the possibility for us to witness one of the most memorable finals in Olympic hockey history this year. Meanwhile, the 2010 U.S. squad has dark horse potential and cannot be counted out of medal contention.

In addition to the level of play, hockey holds an advantage over other Olympic sports because it creates rooting interests that go beyond the 2010 games. Michael Phelps’ eight-gold-medal performance in Beijing two years ago was captivating, but you won’t be able to cheer for him again until 2012.

He’s only relevant once every four years. Since most Olympic hockey players are in the NHL, your professional rooting interests can carry into the Olympics. The average Anaheim sports fans clearly has no ties to Finland, but fans from the city who are familiar with Finnish Ducks winger Teemu Selanne actually have a reason to turn on one of Finland’s games and have a legitimate interest in it. Plus, any players that captivate fans during the games won’t disappear, but instead can be followed back in the NHL as soon as the Olympic games are over.

When everything is said and done, team sports always evoke more national pride than individual ones in international competition. What Phelps did in 2008 was special, but did his efforts, or the historic accomplishments of Americans such as Michelle Kwan or Tara Lipinski, really bring people together in the way that team events like the 1980 USA hockey team did?
There are plenty of reasons to get excited for the Winter Olympics, but none should be more so than for when the puck finally drops for the men on Feb. 16.

If great moments are really born from great opportunity, as Herb Brooks tells the U.S. team in the movie “Miracle,” then sports fans should consider this to be their chance to jump on the hockey bandwagon before they miss becoming a part of something special.

— Contact David Michaels.